The best-selling, most widely read, and most influential book ever published doesn’t even have a title. “Bible” is a description of the Book, being the English transliteration of the Greek “biblos.” It doesn’t need a title, but hundreds of others have been entitled from it, e.g., The Deer Hunter’s Bible, “The Flower Gardener’s Bible. “Bible,” in the generic sense is a book that provides everything one needs to know on a given subject—and does so reliably and authoritatively.

The given subject of the Bible is life, a veritable operator’s manual from the Manufacturer.

It is the Book of all books, the book that stands out from among all others. It is the book unlike any other but the one about which more books have been written than any other.

All this is documented historic fact whether one believes in it as the Word of God with a mandate, considers it the best of human wisdom, takes it as a collection of outdated religious myths, or concludes it is a total fraud. Let’s consider all the historic facts in seeking to judge or assess the Bible.

No book has had as much influence on languages, other literatures, thinking, and behavior. There must be something substantial about the Bible for this to have happened.

In the nineteenth century when most homes were without books, the Bible was the book most found. If there was a second, it was usually a hymnal of psalms and other songs from or based on the Bible. It was the first reader for children, and the Bible was read in all schools, public and private. The first English grammars used the Bible for illustrations. Abraham Lincoln was not the only child in a primitive home who learned to read by reading the Bible. The Bible had such a fixed place in his mind and heart, he quoted it through his entire life.

Only a few college courses are devoted entirely to the works of a single author. Only a  small number of single classics require a full course to study it. No college maintains a department to research and teach a full corpus of any writer, much less a separate department for just one book. No college major is offered in one book or even the works of a single writer.

The closest any writer has ever come to the popularity and appreciation of the Bible is William Shakespeare. Sales of his books are second only to those of the Bible. A major reason he has been so valued is he constantly quotes from or alludes to the Bible. Scores of books have been written about Shakespeare’s use of the Bible.

But even Shakespeare’s respect comes from almost a library of comedies and tragedies. No one book of his has even approached the appreciation of the one book called the Bible.

Not only can a student major in this one book alone, a graduate student can earn a doctorate in just one part of the book, e.g., Old Testament. Some individual books within the Bible are taught over two semesters, e.g., Isaiah. Scores of colleges are devoted entirely to the teaching of this one book, the Bible, and this is the only major offered.

The original forms of the Bible were written in three languages, i.e., Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Many people have received doctorates in any one of these languages in order to read the Bible in the original.

Some other books have thin paperback commentaries or guides written on them. Commentaries on the one book, the Bible, can run to thirty thick, hardback volumes. Most commentary sets take three volumes to cover the one Bible book of Psalms.

No other book is as often read in the original, nor is so reading another as important as the Bible. No other book has been translated into as many languages (2,479) nor are there as many versions within the same language (100 versions in English alone). No other book has a full classification assigned to it in Dewey Decimal System (220, so 220.1—229.9)) or Library of Congress (BS, so BS1—BS2765.6 ).

A major problem with the Bible is its own famous popularity and ubiquitous availability. We take familiar things for granted and lose our familiarity with them. The Bible is common, but it isn’t a common book. If you read but one book, I recommend The Book.